Collection of World Tour Travel photography albums: Views from a female photographer

1935-1936. Unique. Hardcover. Very Good+. 19 volumes bound in quarter calf with raised bands and linen boards, photographs mounted on kraft paper. Excellent condition, tight, bright and unmarred. Photographs are crisp and clear, well-executed and clean. Consists of approximately 500+ black and white photographs.

Comprehensive collection of a world travel tour speculated to have been taken and compiled by a Jewish-American woman with families and companions to China, Japan, India, Africa, Thailand, Java, Indonesia, and California, etc. Not an untypical gathering and compilation for the time, many middle and upper class families travelled together by ship and rail beginning at the turn of century through the 1920s-1930s, as passenger travel became more affordable and convenient. Given the images are around the beginnings of World War II and near the end of the Great Depression, it is unknown the purpose of the travel of the individuals, but certainly lends to the possible class status of the photographer. Having said that, the complete set gathers a glimpse of cultural sites and communities through a rather professional lens. The photographer has a profound eye and the images are somewhat composed, rather than awkward family vacation snapshots. Additionally, because the albums are carefully bound and arranged, the extensive collection garners unintentional meaning for posterity and documentation. Images include: Admiral Scheer, German battleship with the Kriegsmarine destroyed during World War II, grave site of Leander Starr Jameson in southern Africa, Darjeeling and Himalayan railway in India....etc.
Albums appear to have a stamp on end papers with "J.H. Waser, Zurich..." which is speculated to be the Swiss painter's stamp. Also included are various annotations below individual people and handwritten notations involving the order of photographs.